PREMALATHA PANNEERSELVAM,A LADY TO FOLLOW

Bringing out the best in every child 

 

She retains her smile amidst the cacophonic crowd of students falling all over her in order to get into the frame. She retains her motherly care when more than a dozen students do not go home during Deepavali and Pongal holidays but stay back in her house and she pampers them with new dresses, sweets and gifts.

She retains her cool confidence in plain cotton saris at glittering wedding functions and formal official high-profile meetings with equal ease. She retains her simplicity despite being at the helm of the Mahatma chain of schools, started by her a quarter Century ago.

Premalatha Panneerselvam is no unfamiliar name in thousands of homes in Madurai. And over the years, this Senior Principal, Secretary and Correspondent of Mahatma Schools has gained the trust of parents in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada and the Gulf who have placed their ward’s future in her hands.

“Blame it on destiny,” she quips with a gentle smile.

Mahatma Gandhi’s photos adorn the walls of her large officious room. A big red bindi on her forehead is the only make-up she wears. “At 17 also I was like this, how can I change at 57 now,” declares the winner of multiple “Best Teacher” Awards.

After completing her B.A from Sarah Tucker College, Palayamkottai, she came to Temple town Madurai 35 years ago, seeking admission in Fatima College.

“I wanted to study further and this institution on Bypass Road was a tad closer to my native village near Sivakasi than any other college in the city. But fate took me to Thiagarajar Arts College for a Post-Graduate course in Economics as per the University allotment,” she still holds back the ‘secret’ and then suddenly catches me unawares by blurting out: “Actually that is where I met Panneerselvam.”

The two obviously vibed well and by the time she finished her course, she also stepped into an inter-caste marriage.

“God charted out my life at every turn. Though ancestrally ours is a Tuticorin-based agri family, it also has many professionals including teachers, politicians, bureaucrats and freedom fighters. From childhood, this gave me an exposure to the outside world and the confidence to do whatever I wanted to.”

And what did she dream of doing? “I wanted to become a bureaucrat after my maternal uncle and work towards uplift of society in general. I was always driven by the urge to do something different.”

Post-marriage, her husband, a voracious reader of philosophy and religion initiated her into Gandhism while on the insistence of her father-in-law E.Rm.E.Rengasamy, Rotarian, social worker and the founder of the Yadava College, she agreed to straightaway join as Headmistress of Rotary Laharry School in 1974 sans experience.

“I owe a lot to Mrs.Vasantha Jawahar, the school Correspondent. If she had not trusted my ability, nobody would have known me in the field of education today.”

In 1979 Mrs.Premalatha moved on to S.D.H Jain Vidyalaya as its Principal for two years before joining the Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareswarar Girls HSS as a P.G.Assistant for the next four years.

It was during these years, her friend and educationist Mrs.Lalit Malhotra coaxed her into Montessori programme and sowed the seeds of starting her own school.

“I was already motivated by Mahatma Gandhi who valued children and was deeply concerned about their education in the early formative years. He strongly decried stuffing their minds and instead propagated that basis of education should ensure the cultivation of the hearts of the young and stimulate and develop them,” Mrs.Premalatha narrates.

With her Montessori training matching this idea and an ever-supportive husband backing her dream project, Premalatha started the Mahatma Montessori School from rented premises at Anna Nagar with 32 students and six staff members in 1983.

Today, the school functions from K.K.Nagar with 3,000 plus children and 250 staffers. But it is the first batch of 32 that she holds dear to her heart. “The parents placed their faith in me and the students did not let me down. This is my biggest achievement,” she asserts.

“The purpose of education is to bring out the best in every child. Like Gandhiji said, my aim is to develop in the child his hands, brain and soul and invigorate the creative spirit and make it productive materially and aesthetically.”

“Looking back I realize when I used to walk six kms up and down for my High School in Poovanathapuram, how effective was the old style teaching. My village teacher started geography with the neighbourhood fields which I used to cross daily, arithmetic with counting all our little possessions in the school bags, history round our local place and religious thoughts through the lives of local saints. This simple technique gave us the real experience because children relate best to things that are close and familiar. Dry and abstract lessons only make a farce of teaching process.”

It had taken fraction of a second for Premalatha to decide the name of her first school. “Mahatma Montessori was a perfect amalgamation of the East and the West, where we aim to elevate every soul (atma) into a great soul (mahatma) through education in which knowledge, action and feelings are evenly balanced.” With such a philosophy deeply embedded in her heart and sheer hard work, “growth” was the only reward that effortlessly came Premalatha’s way. Today, she mothers nearly 8,500 students and 800 teachers.

“My schools have a broad spectrum of entrants. You will find an autowallah’s child to a bureaucrat’s. I never enquire about a child’s caste or religion,” she says, elaborating on the “wholesome education” comprising academics, sports values, nature and culture, offered in her schools.

It is not only the infrastructure or the curricula but also Premalatha’s guts to try the unconventional with the parents’ confidence in her intact that set her apart. For instance, she introduced ‘Paramapadam and Pallanguzhi’ to teach simple mathematics to complex concepts like fractions, integers, and even probability to children between the first and the eighth grade. She has done away with exams till Middle School and does not permit writing till a child turns five.

She chooses to experiment regularly and with much success. She is the constant driving force behind conducting varied, innovative and regular workshops and training programmes for students, children and parents alike for the betterment of all.

A good storyteller and an avid reader of books on managerial skills and success stories of great people, Premalatha’s desire is to take the Montessori education to the masses.

A believer in Fine Arts, a learner and lover of Carnatic music, a staunch devotee of Puttaparthi Sai Baba, she says her journey in life continues to be the same as it was when she started off. Even today she works equally hard from 5.30 a.m. to midnight, visiting each of her school daily, taking classes, attending meetings, entertaining visitors, meeting happy and aggrieved parents.

Inside her fit and small framework, she is an astounding bundle of energy, who loves to walk, sing bhajans, play with her grandchildren, cook for her family and friends…If at all she has any complaint, it is against time.

FACTFILE

Started a residential school in sprawling 45 acres in Alagar Koil with 260 students and 24 teachers in 1992. Today, the school has 815 students on roll and 112 staffers.

Started her third school in Gopalakrishnan Nagar in 2005 with 1482 students. Today, its strength has risen to 3,160.

Last summer started Mahatma CBSE School with 1,168 students.

Received Jeycees Outstanding Young Person Award 1992

Vocational Excellence Award 1996-97, Rotary Club of North-West Madurai

Dr.Radhakrishnan Award for the Best Teacher, Tamil Nadu Government 2001

Best Teacher Award, from Lions and Rotary Club Madurai 2001

For the Sake of Honour Award, Rotary Club Madurai Metro 2003

Best Administrator Award, 2007-08, STRI, a social organisation

Mahatma group of schools has also received the Best School of Award several times from different organisations.

The British Council International School Award — for introducing and developing the idea of internationalism in school curriculum — has been accredited to Mahatma School, K.K.Nagar, from June 2008 to March 2011 and to Mahatma Baba Building from June 2009 to March 2012.

The Alagar Koil residential school is working for the same award for the next academic year.

Former President Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam presided over the school’s silver jubilee celebrations last October and the day is described as a historic and memorable day by all those associated with the school.

For 18 consecutive years including 2009, Mahatma School has won the shield for best overall performance in art and craft competitions conducted by Asian Paints every 15th August 

COURTESY: HINDU